In this post I’ll introduce my guitar pedal board setup. It is basically unchanged for years. I mostly play a Fender Stratocaster 1986 (Made in Japan) which connects to a BOSS Compression Sustainer CS-3 which does colors the sound a bit, makes it a bit Twangy/round, but not so much to further modulate it. It does do a good job at keeping the sound levels balanced.
Next is the Dunlop Wah Wah which is a classic pedal, sturdy, easy and smooth to operate, although it takes a healthy foot press to turn it on/off, but there’s a good reason for that, mostly to prevent accidental activation. The Dunlop is balanced as well, there’s no frequency that doesn’t sound right.
The Harlot Tube Overdrive by Kingsley is a versatile boutique pedal, it has 3 different overdrive stages, a tone and a gain, it can be very subtle for Blues, or very Warm, saturated, and harmonically rich, and to the extreme – even dark & heavy (reminds me of Black Sabbath riffs).
The trustworthy Boss Distortion DS1, is a classic for solos, with or without wah. The tone knob is set to lows, as its highs are too much to bare…
The TC-Electronics Vibrato is just seating there, I never was fully satisfied with its added value – modulating the pitch up and down, so most of the times it’s off. It could be a nice additive to an acoustic guitar but in retrospect I would rather have a tremolo. I think I’ll let it go eventually.
The Digitech DIGIDELAY is an awesome pedal, it has various options as digital delay (that’s what I mostly use), analog delay, reverse and a few presets. It also has a tap tempo. I hardly use the Ibanez Digital Delay, I think the Digitech is a much better and versatile delay.
The AKAI HEAD RUSH E2 is a Looper and Delay (a knob for setting digital or analog or a mix) with Tap Tempo as well, it’s one of the most easy to operate pedals, allowing you to switch from a Looper into a Delay by pressing the two foot switches simultaneously, it has one downside and that is doesn’t allow long loops like the DITO Looper.
I also had a DOD Phaser but got rid of it. The effect itself was awesome (in a Psychedelic kind of way) but whenever the Pedal was engaged, the volume would sore higher to my liking. I do miss the Phaser ability to create depth so I am planning to eventually get a UNIVIBE or a different Phaser, haven’t decide on which. Any recommendation? let me know in the comments below!
How to Order Your Guitar Pedals
So, regarding pedal boards, I’m the last one to tell you there’s a right or wrong way. Feel free to experiment and you might wind up creating new sounds that are exclusively unique to your pedal board.